Listening: Lena’s voicemail and the ‘nicht ... sondern’ trap
You are staying with a host family in Munich. On Saturday morning your friend Lena leaves a voicemail; you can listen only once. You write a note for your host brother.
Transcript: „Hallo! Ich bin’s, Lena. Wir treffen uns heute nicht um drei in der Stadthalle, sondern um zwei vor der Stadtbibliothek. Bring bitte Turnschuhe mit - wir gehen klettern, nicht schwimmen. Ach, und mein Bruder kommt auch mit. Er hat noch ein Fahrrad für dich. Bis später! Tschüss!“
Lena speaks quickly and the line is not perfect. Your first note says: ‘15:00, inside the Stadthalle, bring swimming things.’ Your host brother reads it and asks whether he should come too. You remember the words nicht, sondern and noch ein but are not sure how they change the message.
1. State the correct meeting time and place, and explain why your first note has both details wrong. Use the **nicht ... sondern** structure in your answer.
Read the worked answer
Correct: 14:00, in front of the Stadtbibliothek. The note has 15:00 and ‘inside the Stadthalle’.
The key structure is nicht um drei in der Stadthalle, sondern um zwei vor der Stadtbibliothek. Nicht ... sondern replaces the first item with the second: not 3 o’clock but 2 o’clock; not in the Stadthalle but in front of the Stadtbibliothek. A listener who catches only um drei and Stadthalle writes the cancelled version. Also, vor der Stadtbibliothek means ‘in front of’, not ‘inside’. Vor takes the dative here: der Stadtbibliothek. The correction is not an extra meeting; it is the only meeting.
2. What activity are you doing, and what should you bring? Why is **Turnschuhe** the right item and not swimming things?
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You are going climbing, so bring Turnschuhe - trainers. The contrast is explicit: wir gehen klettern, nicht schwimmen. Nicht schwimmen cancels the swimming idea; it does not mean ‘we are not going anywhere’. The activity that remains is climbing.
Turnschuhe is a compound: Turnen (gymnastics/exercise) + Schuhe (shoes), so everyday sports shoes. It is not Badehose (swimming trunks). The pause and the self-correction - wir gehen klettern, nicht schwimmen are typical of spoken German; a single-listen candidate must hold the first activity and let the negation remove the alternative, not the main activity. The host brother’s question about coming too is separate: that is answered by mein Bruder kommt auch mit.
3. Lena says her brother has **noch ein Fahrrad für dich**. Does that mean ‘he has no bike’ or ‘he has another bike’? Explain how **noch ein** works.
Read the worked answer
It means he has another/additional bike for you - one more bike, available for you to use. It does not mean ‘no bike’.
The confusion is understandable because noch and nicht look similar in fast speech. Nicht ein would be negating ‘one’ (and would normally appear as kein in this context: Er hat kein Fahrrad). Noch ein means ‘another one / one more’. The ein is an indefinite article, and für dich means ‘for you’. So the message is practical: you do not need to borrow or hire a bike; the brother has an extra one. The phrase kommt auch mit earlier also shows auch adding a person, so the voicemail is adding people and equipment, not removing them.